Tom Dair with Richard Whitehall from Smart Design at the White House.
I attended the 2009 National Design Awards event at the White House this past Friday. If you had seen my previous posting, you would know that I was hoping to get to meet the First Lady and say something profound about the importance of design, with the intent of elevating design awareness at the top level of government.
I want to thank all the folks that responded to the previous posting for all the thoughts and ideas. I decided to go with basically the comment posted by David-Henry Oliver: Ask her to describe something that effects her (a problem) and then work with the design community to deliver a solution that demonstrates the power of design. I felt the message might be a bit too wordy so in addition to delivering it verbally, at the last minute, I decided to hand write it on a small sheet of note paper and staple my card to the note (thanks to Brian Ward). Here's what I wrote:
Dear Ms. Obama,
Design is a powerful tool for solving problems but it is currently underutilized in addressing the issues we face as a nation and as Americans. Please send me a problem (large or small) and I will work with leaders from the design community to deliver a unique and superior solution. Give it a try!
Respectfully submitted, Tom
For better or for worse it was a three sentence proposal to the First Lady, Michelle Obama.
Guests milling around before the luncheon
Well, the event was really great--almost all of the winners and finalists were there along with many important Obama staffers and selected guests from the public. They arranged the guests at tables to promote new introductions, and within a few minutes, a myriad of design-related conversations began to flow, in between bites of tasty crab cakes. I was seated next to Mark Holbrook, the principal of Washington Mathematics Science Technology Public Charter High School. He was interested in design education and I think he is a little bit of a designer himself in hearing about some of his recent projects.
Michael Bierut, Pentagram; Lisa Strausfeld, Pentagram, finalist Interaction Design; and Joe Reinstein, Deputy Social Secretary for the White House (note the robot in the lower left corner!)
Next to Mark sat Joe Reinstein, the Deputy Social Secretary for the White House. Joe mentioned that there were several events going on in the White House that day and one of the keys to successful events was the ability to remain flexible with how each event would be orchestrated. He also mentioned that unfortunately, I was not going to get the chance to meet the First Lady face to face for that two second handshake and my brief opportunity to deliver my message on design.
Michelle Obama entered the room and proceeded to the stage to give her welcome to all the attendees and to address the topic of design. All and all it was a compelling speech and she linked much of the topic back to her life and her family as well as opportunity for improving the education of our children. Here's the high point, when she said "Great designers also pursue a mission. Great designers design with mankind in mind. Building on the innovations of the past, you help to shape a better future.” After her address, the First Lady turned the podium over to Wayne Clough, the Secretary to the Smithsonian, and he went into detail regarding the awards and winners.
First Lady Michelle Obama passing through the crowd at the 2009
National Design Awards event at the White House
As the gala event was winding to an end and I had still not gotten the chance to deliver my message. I remembered what Joe Reinstein had said about staying flexible, and if I wasn't going to get a chance to meet Michelle Obama, then I would have to be flexible and do the next best thing. I went back to speak with Joe. He seemed truly interested in design and how it might play into potential problem solving of current issues. I delivered my handwritten note to Joe and explained that the design community is passionate about making the world a better place and that we want a chance to be more involved. "Joe," I said. "Here is my proposal to Ms Obama. Would you please deliver it for me?" Without a moment's hesitation he said that he would make sure that the First Lady received the message.
So now I feel like my mission was accomplished in some form or fashion. Let's see if the White House comes back to us. If they take us up on my proposal, I'll need a lot of help from everyone out there. Stay tuned and please send me any thoughts you might have on next steps or possible scenarios.
Tom Dair, co-founder and president of Smart Design, runs the
company's San Francisco office. He directs the firm's Insights and
Strategy discipline, where he has pioneered techniques for achieving
better design through an understanding of user behavior, business
factors, and technology trends.
Dair holds 19 patents for products ranging from complex medical
devices to children's toothbrushes. His designs have won a variety of
awards and are featured in a number of museum collections.
I'm off to the White House this week for the National Design Awards. It's not my first time; my firm Smart Design was honored as a finalist for a National Design Award and few years back and I got to meet First Lady Laura Bush (above). This year once again, there are plenty of great firms to be honored. But that's not the topic of this posting.
Here's what's really on my mind. There is a good chance I'll get to meet the honorable--and outspoken supporter of design, certainly with regards to fashion--First Lady Michelle Obama. And there's a good chance I'll get to say "hello," or "it's an honor to meet you," or "thank you" when she congratulates me for my firm's recognition for this year's award.
But here's the thing: I think that this administration really gets it. If any administration might consider design as a possible way to help solve the world's problems, this is the one! Let's face it: The Obamas are progressive, big thinkers who have an unprecedented understanding of branding and social media, not to mention the importance of reaching the world's masses through multiple communication touchpoints. Their commitment to change--everything from clean energy, to foreign affairs, to healthcare and even organic gardening--is inspiring in the way they embrace new approaches to solving old problems. Bringing design to the forefront could be next!
Here's my question to you. If I get the chance to tell Michelle Obama something about design that might get her to take more interest in how design can help to improve the world's condition, what should I say to her? I'm not talking about an elevator pitch for design, that would be way too wordy. I need the perfect soundbite. Something impactful, something prolific, something powerful and something that will stick--something that will make her consider the power of design and designers in making the world a better place.
What should I say? Add your perfect soundbite below, and I'll do my best to deliver it.
Tom Dair, co-founder and president of Smart Design, runs the
company's San Francisco office. He directs the firm's Insights and
Strategy discipline, where he has pioneered techniques for achieving
better design through an understanding of user behavior, business
factors, and technology trends.
Dair holds 19 patents for products ranging from complex medical
devices to children's toothbrushes. His designs have won a variety of
awards and are featured in a number of museum collections.
A few years ago, we were working on the design for new toaster. The client was looking for something that would make a statement on the countertop landscape. Aesthetics were important, but we also spent considerable time discussing the size of the toaster slots and how wide or narrow to make them for the variety of items that someone might want to toast.
Think about it. White bread, English muffins, waffles, Pop Tarts, rye bread, hot dog rolls, bagels, hand sliced homemade bread, pastries, hamburger buns...the list goes on. Should we design it with two slots side by side, or one long slot in case the toasting target was a baguette? The client sent us its standard specification for the size of toaster slots. When we asked them why they should be that size, they replied that it was the "standard" size and the size that they had always made them. They added, "We don't talk to the people who make the bread".
A few years later, we landed a project with a food company. Their specialty was breakfast foods and cereals. Our project was to reinvent breakfast...how cool is that?
We got started right away. We conducted consumer research on how and where people ate breakfast. We held numerous brainstorm sessions. We tirelessly sketched ideas. We identified multiple areas of opportunity. We figured out how to build food prototypes--and, in the end, we delivered a broad range of innovative new product concepts.
There were so many concepts that we had to separate them by category: cereal concepts, breakfast bar concepts, and the things you could put in a toaster concepts. And then there were all the concepts that didn't actually fit into a category concepts.
During the presentation the client seemed quite pleased (money well spent!) and thanked us for all the creative thinking and hard work. We thought that the designs for the "things you put in a toaster" category had enormous potential, but the client seemed lukewarm about many of the ideas. We asked why. The client said that they thought the ideas were innovative, but they weren't sure they'd fit in a toaster, adding, "We don't talk to the people who make the toasters".
When we use products, we don't often think about all the necessary dependencies that have to be in place for that product to perform its function. We just want them to work. What would PCs do without software, what would the cell phones do without telecoms, and what would toasters do without bread? Most businesses are narrowly and vertically focused--in other words, they pretty much make or provide just one thing. This makes sense. It allows them to get very good at what they do without being distracted, but it also puts them in a position of risk. The risk is that the changing world around them can have a huge impact on their business, and there is not much they can do about it. What if toasted bread went out of fashion or was determined to be unhealthy? Bye, bye toaster!
The toaster client and food client above could have benefited from a more holistic view of their businesses. This is where a strategic design program could have helped them. Savvy design strategists, design researchers, and designers not only seek to deeply understand the client's business and the end user's needs of the product, but they also try to deeply understand the connected (and not so connected) interrelationships that factor into the success or failure of the potential offering.
Design principles and design planning can be applied across a broad range of products and services to make the connections. Designers begin the design process with an understanding of the current state of affairs, the big picture, the potential opportunities, and then, as the details begin to fall into place, we devise a solution that has anticipated a variety of possible outcomes and charted the path with the highest likelihood of success.
This allows not only success in the marketplace, but equally important, success in leveraging the direct and indirect interrelationships with other products and services, ensuring that, for at least the near future, toasters and toast will enjoy a mutually beneficial relationship.
Wow--design is important!
Hey, people--what do you think? Can design save us? Did you toast anything today? Let me know.
Tom Dair, co-founder and president of Smart Design, runs the company's San Francisco office. He directs the firm's Insights and Strategy discipline, where he has pioneered techniques for achieving better design through an understanding of user behavior, business factors, and technology trends.
Dair holds 19 patents for products ranging from complex medical devices to children's toothbrushes. His designs have won a variety of awards and are featured in a number of museum collections.
For me, managing Smart Design's San Francisco office is a fantastic job: working on exciting projects, meeting with industry leaders, collaborating with creative types, and traveling the globe. But let's face it; there are also aspects of the job that are less glamorous--managing budgets, no time for lunch, collaborating with prickly creative types, and battling the never-ending office mess.
I try to do my part, so one day after an office event we were faced with multiple cleaning tasks. The kitchen was a minor disaster area; no one wanted to deal with that. So we engaged in a spur of the moment contest of rock-paper-scissors to determine the loser: that would be the person responsible for kitchen clean-up. BAM! I threw rock, but unfortunately for me, my opponent, Barry the intern, threw paper. The agony of defeat... I rolled up my sleeves and got to work.
As I was tending to my chores, I couldn't stop thinking about that stupid game and how I lost to paper. For me, it's easy to understand how scissors can beat paper, and I can see, with enough determination, how rock can beat scissors, but what I really have a problem with is how paper defeats rock. Sure, paper can cover rock. But let's face it, in reality rock will pulverize paper. Paper could gift wrap rock at best. It almost seemed unfair. I don't know about you, but personally, I would much rather get hit by a piece of paper than a rock.
As I was growing up, my mom had a lot of advice, especially when it came to safety. I used to hear "it's better to be a live chicken than a dead duck" a lot. Here's another one: "if there is ever an electrical storm, whatever you do, don't stand under a tree. The safest place during an electrical storm is in a car. The rubber tires protect it from the lightning". One day some teenagers in a fast moving Camaro hit a tree down the street from my house. The car was totaled; fortunately the teenagers survived. Mom, as usual, had a rule to cover just such an event: "if you're going to hit something with your car, don't hit a tree. A car is no match for a tree."
As an adult, I think back fondly to all that good advice. At the same time, I'm still bugged at how paper beats rock. Recently, I was driving to work and a large tree was blocking the road. It had been struck by lightning. I had to take an alternate route, but seeing that fallen tree got me thinking. If lightning could beat the tree and the tree could beat a car (remember the Camaro?), but the safest place to be in an electrical storm was in a car (like Mom said) then these three things seem like they would be formidable opponents in a game exactly like rock-paper-scissors but with a different name... say for instance, car-lightning-tree. Yes! And they could replace the flawed logic of paper beating rock. It would be a much fairer fight. It could look something like this:
As I finished cleaning up that mess in the kitchen, I put the shining steel scissors in the drawer, wiped down the durable stone countertop, and tossed the ragged paper towel in the trash. One more problem solved. (Or maybe it was two?)
What other threesome might beat rock-paper-scissors? Would love to hear your thoughts.
Tom Dair, co-founder and president of Smart Design, runs the company's San Francisco office. He directs the firm's Insights and Strategy discipline, where he has pioneered techniques for achieving better design through an understanding of user behavior, business factors, and technology trends.
Dair holds 19 patents for products ranging from complex medical devices to children's toothbrushes. His designs have won a variety of awards and are featured in a number of museum collections.
Did you ever stay with a friend or relative and, while there, need to use their microwave or oven? How did it go? Was it easy, confusing, frustrating, enraging? Did you figure it out for yourself or did you have to ask for instructions? What about their bathroom? Did you happen to use that, too? How'd that go? Did you figure it out or did you have to ask for instructions?
Over the winter holidays, my family and my son's two friends spent time in a rental house in the Lake Tahoe area. On the evening of our arrival, we decided to pick up pizza on our way to the house. We finally got to our destination, threw our gear inside, and the boys immediately headed outside to build a snowboard ramp. It was vacation, so we decided dinner could wait. My wife volunteered to go back into town and stock up on provisions.
That left me alone with two large pizzas and a green salad. I wasn't sure when the boys would be back in for food, so I put the salad in the refrigerator and decided to keep the pizzas warm in the oven. The rental was recently renovated with a new kitchen and new appliances.
I approached the oven. This was a sleek wall oven, with stainless steel and black glass. I looked for a second, found the "on" button and pressed it, illuminating the multi-function control panel. There were a variety of settings and options such as "turbo bake" and "convection rotisserie," but I decided to go for the simple route and adjusted the temperature to a low setting. After all, I was just trying to keep pizza warm.
We had just arrived and I hadn't had time to track down the usual cooking tools so, after unsuccessfully looking for a pizza pan for about 10 seconds, I decided just to put the pizza boxes directly into the oven. Okay, I know this is dumb (‘bet you've done it, too) but I had set the oven temperature to 200 degrees--far below the kindling point of paper--and I figured it would be fine.
My phone started ringing; someone from my office was trying reach me. I answered, but the connection was spotty, so I walked up the stairs where the reception was a little bit better, and talked for about 25 minutes. Suddenly the smoke alarm sounded. I ran back down the stairs to find the kitchen full of smoke... the pizzas! I quickly removed the smoldering boxes and threw them on the stove top. Our pizza dinner was a charred ruin.
I went back to look at the oven--200 degrees. What went wrong? Turns out that in the lower left corner of the display panel (far away from the 200 degree indicator) was an illuminated small letter "c". Yep, Celsius. I only figured it out after finding the user manual for the stove, which the homeowner had stowed in a drawer labeled appliance manuals. Why was the oven was set to Celsius not Fahrenheit? Beats me. Maybe that was the default setting; maybe it was a European oven; maybe the owners of the rental house set it that way to be funny. I really don't know. All I know is that it certainly wasn't evident to me… and instead of warming the pizzas to a toasty 200F, I had scorched them at 200C, the equivalent of about 400 degrees F.
Modern Built-in Oven with flush control panel (no knobs). Not necessarily the oven in my story.
The control panels can get very confusing, especially for a first time user.
This oven wants me to push it. Hey, that's too much work! I just want to keep the pizza warm.
So who cares? I burned pizza and almost started a fire; no big deal, it happens every day. Here's the point: As products get smarter, people are forced to get smarter too, just to use them. For many of today's products, it takes more time and a greater level of attention to perform the simplest tasks. These products can save time, but they can suck time, too. I can understand that if you buy a new appliance it may take some level of involvement to learn about the advanced functions, but basic operations should be obvious and intuitive. This is the acid test for good design. And it's not necessarily just about an object's physical design; it's about how we operate products, how we interact and engage with them that makes the difference.
Unlike a personal cell phone, most household products, from kitchen appliances to entertainment systems to bathroom fixtures, are "we" products used by all members of the family, as well as guests and visitors. They should be designed with that in mind. Today, products are becoming more and more advanced, multi-functional, and connected. So for now, when visiting friends or family you probably don't have to ask how to operate their toilet, but give it a few years; that time may be coming soon.
My wife returned with the supplies and I went back out to get more pizza. I left the operation of the TV and entertainment system to the teenage boys. The vacation was off to a relaxing start.
How have "we" products stymied you? Did you ever have to ask how to operate a toilet? Tell me your story.
Tom Dair, co-founder and president of Smart Design, runs the company's San Francisco office. He directs the firm's Insights and Strategy discipline, where he has pioneered techniques for achieving better design through an understanding of user behavior, business factors, and technology trends.
Dair holds 19 patents for products ranging from complex medical devices to children's toothbrushes. His designs have won a variety of awards and are featured in a number of museum collections.
A few years back, I was invited by a design professor to be a guest critic for a student presentation. It's fairly common for design educators to bring in professionals from the outside. It allows for different points of view and opinions of the work to surface, and also saves the teacher from having to say something constructive and relevant about every student's project within a few hours' time frame... a challenge in itself.
It was a sophomore class and the assignment was pretty basic. The students were instructed to analyze how an existing product was made: the parts, construction, materials, and manufacturing process. For their deliverable they had to make large presentation boards illustrating the product in an exploded view showing each part along with associated information. The presentation boards had to be clearly labeled with the product's name at the top.
On the day of the presentation I arrived at the classroom and each student's project was neatly pinned up on the wall for everyone to view. But before we could get started, there was a sudden outbreak of commotion and laughter around one of the projects. The student who was responsible for the project appeared red-faced and visibly upset. Here's what happened:
The student had selected a women's shaver called the "Flicker" for her product analysis--the "Flicker" women's shaver was introduced in 1971 and discontinued in 2006; it was the first disposable shaver designed specifically for women. At the top of her presentation boards she had placed the product's name in very large capital letters--something like this, FLICKER. The problem was that in her rush to finish on time, she had spaced the individual characters very closely together, so close that the lower leg of the "L" merged with the bottom of the "I" forming a new letter and a completely new name for the product. It was a mishap caused by focusing in on the details but failing to step back and see the big picture. I think you get the idea, but just in case you don't I've included a brief illustration showing various conventional character spacing below.
FLICKER - expanded character spacing
FLICKER - normal character spacing
FLICKER - condensed character spacing
FLICKER - extra condensed character spacing
F#&%ER - inappropriate character spacing
In the end it all worked out Okay, with a few small pieces of white tape applied to separate the "L" from the "I," bringing the product's name back to the original. The funny thing is that out of all the student's projects that day, FLICKER is the only one I can remember, not because it was the best work in the class (typography aside) but because there was so much emotion around this particular project.
In the FLICKER caper, haste made for an unfortunate mistake. But sometimes accidents or unexpected collisions can be beautiful, too. In design, connecting different elements in new ways is core to the creative process. It's difficult to arrive at a completely new and original idea unto itself. In fact, it's almost impossible to come up with a good idea by staring at a blank piece of paper (or computer screen.) But by combining seemingly disparate elements, the imagination often begins to stir. Depending on the design problem, the effort can require tying a variety of ideas and factors together. This is where design gets truly exciting--when we look at how to put those elements together and start to see possible directions and outcomes.
What do you think? I'd love to hear your thoughts on the inadvertent connections you've made, how you spark creativity, or words you've transformed into new words or ideas when you spaced the letters too closely.
Tom Dair, co-founder and president of Smart Design, runs the company's San Francisco office. He directs the firm's Insights and Strategy discipline, where he has pioneered techniques for achieving better design through an understanding of user behavior, business factors, and technology trends.
Dair holds 19 patents for products ranging from complex medical devices to children's toothbrushes. His designs have won a variety of awards and are featured in a number of museum collections.
In my first week of studying industrial design in college one of my professors turned to the class, and while holding and pointing to a hammer, he said "form follows function." That was the first time I heard the phrase but certainly not the last. Form follows function is one of the first rules or "laws" of design that all design and architect students learn and they pretty much carry it with them through their professional careers. It's difficult to argue that this is not a true statement.
But for me it's like the chicken and the egg--we have to ask which came first, the form or the function? If you go back to the early existence of humans you might have to reverse the order and emphasis of the words to "function follows form." Before we started to build our own stone tools we almost certainly scrounged around for existing natural objects (stones, bones, sticks) that could help us perform tasks. A stone that fit neatly in the hand could be used to apply sharp blows. A pointed stick worked well for jabbing holes in things. So in these cases the form actually existed before the function. It was the form that stirred the imagination and the idea of use, which then led to the function.
Let's face it, the same is true today. Technically you can't have the function until you have finalized the form--you can only have the idea or imagination of the function. Let's say you were designing a coffee cup that would be the world's most comfortable coffee cup. Well, you would have to imagine how to achieve it and then build the form before you could experience the function, which leads me to the statement... form follows imagination and function follows form.
Okay--so what does this all mean for all those cool technology products we fill our lives with? You know--the cell phones, the cameras, the laptops and those big flat screen TV sets. The idea that form follows function carries little weight here, especially when it comes to consumer electronics (aka CE). With these products the form is based on efficient containment of internal components such as circuit boards and displays. Circuit boards and displays come in rectangular shapes so an efficient way to contain them is in a box.
Depending on the type of product (cell phone, TV etc.) the box size and proportion can be adjusted to fit the stuff that has to go inside. Gee, I wonder what form the next iPod will be?? With CE products we could say: form follows function… as long as it's a box.
It is for this reason that traditional product design for CE has been primarily relegated to detailing boxes through subtle variation, material use, and color. And, let face it, usually those colors are black, white, or silver. Sure, some have rounded corners and the occasional curved line but for the most part they are still boxes. The expression of function no longer resides in these forms, it resides in the way that we use them, the interface, the interaction and the experience. So, this is really the new frontier for design and function… and I'm not really even sure if traditional notion of form exists anymore…at least for this category.
Hey industrial designers--don't be bummed out. We could still work on the world's most comfortable coffee cup or maybe even a better hammer. Let me know what you think…or if you even care.
Tom Dair, co-founder and president of Smart Design, runs the company's San Francisco office. He directs the firm's Insights and Strategy discipline, where he has pioneered techniques for achieving better design through an understanding of user behavior, business factors, and technology trends
Dair holds 19 patents for products ranging from complex medical devices to children's toothbrushes. His designs have won a variety of awards and are featured in a number of museum collections.
The student had selected a women's shaver called the "Flicker" for her product analysis--the "Flicker" women's shaver was 
